More with less sustainability series - Solar energy (3/4)

Three: Sun, sun, powerful sun

Words by Lynsey Burke

In our ‘More with Less’ blog series so far we have celebrated the systems that SPL has in place that allow us to harness energy and heat on a net zero basis.

We use the force of moving water to generate electricity and dead fall from the forest to provide fuel for our wood stoves.

Water and wood – provisions that nature readily provides – gets us through the wet, dark and cold seasons and keeps us operating and illuminated year-round. But what about the sun?

Staying green with the rays of the sun

To tread lightly is to respect the delicacy of nature, and by doing so we continue to reap the rewards of the land, allowing the Lodge to tap into the natural world that surrounds us.

When the streams have slowed during a time when the rain has taken a pause, we divert our gaze to the power of the sun. Summers are a high energy use time of year, coinciding with the season where there is less water and thus less power generation through the Pelton Wheel.

How do we manage the competing demands for power? This is where load management comes in – balancing the supply of electricity with the electrical load by adjusting or controlling the load rather than the power station output. Load management allows SPL to reduce demand for electricity during peak usage times.

Energy storage and load management

As people at the Lodge and as occupants of our planet we share this world-wide challenge — to plan for energy storage and to juggle power use. The world can’t sustain infinite energy whenever we want, but we can divert our usage and plan around peak use times in order to distribute our energy needs.

If energy consumption is high in one area of the lodge, the automated system will temporarily turn off systems in other areas — a sophisticated sharing system put in place to ensure that we don’t overtax the grid.

To store all of the hard-sought energy we have systems in place: lithium batteries, hydronic heating, hot water tanks and of course — smart design.

Sizing up solar collection systems – Vacuum Tube Solar Installation

Back in 2009 we installed some leading-edge-of-the-time technology – a vacuum tube solar hot water system on the roof of the Outdoor Centre. This system of heating was designed to perform optimally in our climate and geographical location where sometimes the days are short and the sky is dark.

The Outdoor Centre houses the commercial kitchen, dining areas, seven guest rooms and the outdoor education equipment staging area that the building is named after. It was a big propane user. The vacuum tube solar hot water system replaced fossil fuel energy with alternate energy.

The basement houses the storage tanks for the hot water generated by the solar vacuum tubes.

Vacuum Tube Installation adding green power
Photo: Scott Ballhorn

• Flat Plate Solar Collectors

SPL has two flat plate solar collectors – one on the Waterfront Centre and one on Big Den (which houses our COLT Semester students). These panels are dependent on direct sunlight so are installed on two of our buildings with higher use May to October.

• Photoelectric Cell Plates

SPL gains 17 KWs from three installations – one on the roof of the Admin Building and one on each of our newest cabins.

As the most abundant energy on earth, there is nowhere to go from here but up. With manufacturing increasing and cost decreasing, the demand and feasibility of solar installations world-wide will inevitably follow the same upward trend.

• The Gold Standard

So what is the gold standard when it comes to energy efficiency? Look no further than Cabins 3 and 4.

If you’re an enviro-geek, these are the greenest cabins we’ve got to offer where you can stay cozy and revel at the ‘greenness.’ Energy efficiency is part of the design by architect Colin Hay. Add in solar panels that face south with just the right angle, hydroponic concrete floor heat, lithium battery storage, load management and a car charging station, these cabins are comfortable and have a tiny carbon footprint year round.

Sun on the solar panels add some electric car charging capacity
Photo by Tyler Cave

Our future of energy

As the technology improves we get excited about how to further reduce our carbon footprint. Stewardship is one of our core values, and we will continue to prioritize this infrastructure. And with the due diligence of all of us here on earth we can make the environmental investment with a long-term vision — to conserve, convert and save clean energy.

It is a promising future when we look to solar to energize our needs. In these months when the days are the longest and the nights are the shortest, our solar panels are soaking up the sun alongside your summer sun-seeking selves.

* * *